Apparatus for forming felt



Feb. 22, GRIFFlTH EAL I APPARATUS FOR FORMING FELT Filed Dec. 28, 1945 T a INVENTORS /vor 6/6919) BY A/frec/f? Hucfieger 09% +81 ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT orrlcs APPARATUS FOR FORMING FELT Ivor Griffith, Elkins Park, Pm, and Alfred P. Huchberger, New York, N. Y., assignors to The Frank H. Lee Company, Danbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application December 28, 1945, Serial No. 637,737

2 Claims. (Cl. 19-144) The present invention relates to a new method of forming felt from fibers such as fur or wool or the like and particularly to such a method in which an electrostatic type of precipitation is utilized to deposit the loose fibers upon a surface as, for example, upon the type of cone normally used in the formation of hat bats.

At the present time it is customary to deposit fur upon a cone by inducing a suction through perforations in the cone to draw the fur onto the cone. This method is in many ways unsatisfactory, one of its major objections being the large amount of power required to operate the suction pumps for this operation.

By our improved method the fur is caused to take a charge and is then attracted to an oppositely charged surface upon which it is deposited, deposition being very uniform and forming a felt structure, which after further processing yields an extremely uniform felt.

It is an object of the invention to provide a methodof depositing fibers to be felted upon a surface to form the normal hat bat which will later be shrunk in any known manner to produce a hat.

It is-another object of the invention to provide a method of accomplishing this result in which electrostatic means are used to cause the deposition and no suction is required.

It is a further object of the invention to provide such a means of depositing fibers to be felted upon a cone or the like in which the fibers become charged and are impelled to the oppositely charged cone without subsequently dropping from the cone due to the loss of their charge. We have found that by a proper arrangement of point discharge electrodes the air surrounding the fur fibers can be constantly ionized and therefore the fibers retain their charges and thus are caused to remain on the cone once they have been deposited.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent when the following description is considered in connection with the annexed drawings, in which- Figure 1 is an illustrative diagram showing the action of a point electrode and an oppositely charged plate when fibers are blown into the field or fields existing between the point and the plate;

Figure 2 is a plan view of one embodiment of our invention showing means for blowing the fur into the field of ionization and causing the fur to be deposited upon a cone; and

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus of Figure 2.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown in Figure 1 a pointed electrode [0 and a plate II. If the point and plate have applied to them a voltage in the neighborhood of 60,000 to 100,000 volts and if they be so charged in air a corona discharge occurs from the pont. The corona gives rise to a stream of ions having a charge of like polarity to that of the point. The ions are then impelled by reason of the electrostatic field existing between the point l0 and the plate I l toward the plate, Then any small particles such as 3, as for example, fibers in the path of the ion current are charged by these ions and as a result the fibers are attracted to the plate II with appreciable force.

Once the particles or fibers reach the plate the charge will tend to leak off and go tothe plate. This tendency is counteracted by the continuous stream of ions supplied by the point l0 so that the particles adhere to the plate as long as the potential difference between the point l0 and the plate II is maintained. a

The principle of operation as disclosed in Figure 1 is shown in Figure 2 as applied to the deposition of fibers upon a cone such as is normally used in the first process in the making of felt hats.

Fur or other fibers are deposited on a belt i2 (Figures 2 and 3) and conveyed by that belt to a pair of rollers I3 which deposit them upon a rotating picker l4 which separates the fibers and delivers them into the housing l5 through which they are blown by an air blast produced by any suitably driven fan I 6.

Mounted along the top and bottom of the nozzle or housing member l5, near its open end, are rows of electrodes I! which are pointed electrodes similar to the electrode l0 discussed in connection with Figure 1. The housing is made of insulating material so that there is no charge upon it. A positive potential is applied to the points I! and a ground or negative potential to a cone l8 which cone, as has clearly been shown in the drawings, is in this particular instance horizontally mounted and arranged to be rotated at a relatively slow speed by motor I9.

Points I! are, as has been indicated above, charged to a high positive potential which may be in the neighborhood of 60,000 volts relative to ground and the cone I8 is connected to ground. Thus, there exists between the points I! and the cone I! a pair of zones, one above and one beneath the nozzle member I, of ionized air, and

aneacsv the fibers, which are blown through the housing, become charged and are attracted to the cone l8. Since the cone is rotating, the fibers are deposited thereon in an even layer and the efl -ct of the ionization and the attraction of the fibers to the cone It. results in these fibers adhering to the cone and in their intermeshing with each other and lying relatively fiat upon the surface of the cone so that a slight ielting action occurs, this action being sufilcient to provide a hat bat which can be handled and may be removed from the cone prlorto any wetting operation.

We do not know the exact reason that the fibers felt to a greater extent than is the case when the normal method of suction through the cone is utilized, but whatever the explanation it is true that the felting action is greater than when suction methods are used. Furthermore, there is but a slight reduction. of the attractive eilect as the felt is built up to its desired thickness, using our method, whereas with the old suction method, once the perforations in the cone are covered, the suction becomes relatively ineffective, and many of the fur fibers are lost because the attractive power, that is the suction, is diminished to such an extent that additional fibers are not attracted to the cone.

In addition to the advantages pointed out above, our method utilizes very little current and is extremely economical of power, and in fact reduces the power requirements to approximately of those of the older suction method of forming felt hat bats. Additionally, the cones utilized in our method may be imperforate and may be formed, for example, of sheet material whereas the cones in the old method must be perforated, and are more difllcult to manufacture and consequently more expensive.

While we have described a preferred embodiment of our invention it will be understood that other embodiments thereof may be devised without departure from the spirit of our invention. Therefore, we wish to be limited not by the foregoing description, which was given for purposes or illustration only, but solely by the appended 4 claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a device ior depositing ieltable fibers upon a cone, in combination, a rotating cone, a generally rectangular nozzle mounted adjacent thereto, with the generatrix of .the cone parallel to the longer dimension of the rectangular nozzle, means for discharging feltable fibers through said nozzle, and a plurality of point electrodes insulatingly mounted on. said nozzle in rows, one on either side of the exterior of the nozzle, the points of said electrodes terminating short 01 the nozzle mouth, said electrodes and said cone oeing oppositely charged to a high potential whereby fibers emerging from said nozzle are placed in streams of ionized air and are thereby charged with the same charge as said electrodes and attracted to the oppositely charged cone.

2. In. a device for depositing feltable fibers upon a cone, in combination, a rotating cone, a generally rectangular nozzle mounted adjacent thereto, with the generatrix oi the cone parallel to the longer dimension of the rectangular nozzle, means for conveying feltable fibers through said nozzle and discharging said fibers from said nozzle mouth, a plurality of point electrodes insulatingly mounted on said nozzle in rows, one on either side of the exterior of the nozzle, the points of said electrodes terminating short or the nozzle mouth, said electrodes and said cone being oppositely charged to a high potential whereby fibers emerging from said nozzle are placed in streams of ionized air and are thereby charged with the same charge as said electrodes and attracted to the oppositely charged cone.

IV OR GRIFFITH. ALFRED P. HUCHBERGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number N Date 824,339 Chapman June 26, 1908 878,273 Chapman Feb. 4, 1988 2,231,324 Crompton, Jr. Feb. 11, 19 1 2,385,873 Melton Oct. 2, 1945 

